MARSEILLE.- How about we forget everything we think we know about football? What if we return to the origins of a sport that, despite being tainted by commercialism, remains above all, a passionate activity that is able to bring friends together, and unite a district, a city, or even a whole nation, despite the everyday social and political issues that divide people. How do the words ‘social’, ‘cultural’ and ‘political’ fit alongside the word ‘football’?

From the streets of Marseilles or Paris, to the ports of Istanbul or Athens, in the suburbs of Algiers, or on the beaches of Malaga, football, whose popularity has never diminished, forges a bond between the peoples of the Mediterranean. And if it sometimes reflects an image of a divided world, full of violence, racism and fanaticism, it is because it puts a spotlight on the dark corners of the societies it is a part of. The game is sometimes considered as a poor man’s sport by the European intelligentsia. A football, whether in the form of a tin can or a rag ball, is seen as the expression of a sort of delinquency. By denying its artistry, it becomes the prerogative of violent thugs who support rich, drugged-up, badly-bred kids. This stigmatisation, which reduces it to a caricature, sidelines its popular spirit.

Some intellectuals have, however, made the leap and overcome the symbolic barriers that block the path to pleasure: Pier Paolo Pasolini was “for Bologna” and considered football as a “language with its poets and its writers”.

With We are Football the Mucem takes a look at its vibrant host city. Marseille moves to the rhythm of football. It breathes football. It is depressed when the team loses; it celebrates victories long into the night. Perhaps a little too much, but feelings run deep. This passion says much about its nature. Beginning with its popular side.

The exhibition, We are Football, seeks to tell the story of the complex world of football, by exploring the southern and northern Mediterranean, its history and current events. This heartbeat gave birth to a new ideal, one in which the stadium is a public space—a stage where society is the actor.

With more than 400 works, objects, photographs, installations and videos from the Mucem collections, other museums, football federations or private collections (the National Sports Museum at Nice, the French Football Federation, the Fédération Sportive et Gymnique du travail [the Workers Gymnastic and Sports Federation], the Pinault Foundation, the FC Barcelona Museum, the Olympic Museum, the FIFA World Football Museum, etc.) and surveys*, the Mucem pays tribute to football and the popular culture that surrounds it, both in the Mediterranean and in Marseille, which is the 2017 European Capital of Sport.

Since its opening, the Mucem has undertaken an ongoing exploration of the contradictions of Euro-Mediterranean societies. In its collections, as in its exhibitions, the institution is committed to identifying the challenges faced by our societies and their popular cultures, even if means creating controversy.

By allowing a football to pass through its doors, the Mucem continues this tradition. It is a brave act.